Tagged: flatbush zombies
Rock the Bells festival returns to D.C.
In honor of the touring hip-hop festival’s 10th anniversary, Rock the Bells will pull into D.C.’s RFK Festival Grounds, September 28-29.
This will mark the festival’s triumphant return to the D.C. market after a two-year hiatus. The festival had become a summer staple at Merriweather Post Pavilion, but after Lauryn Hill nearly derailed the entire show in 2010, the touring mega-fest has not returned.
This year, Rock the Bells is back at a bigger venue for two days, and the initial artists announcement is enough to have us sold: Wu-Tang Clan (with an Ol’ Dirty Bastard hologram), Bone Thugs n Harmony (With an Eazy-E hologram), Black Hippy (Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock), Kid Cudi, Common, Tyler the Creator, Juicy J, E-40 & Too $hort, Danny Brown, Talib Kweli, Flatbush Zombies, Hopsin, Bodega Bamz and more.
Check out RockTheBells.net for more information.
Best Bets: Concerts you should probably check out
Hello friends. We’re back with another week’s worth of shows for you to check out. Thursday has some crazy good shows, unfortunately we cannot be at all them. Also, Saturday’s options are pretty weak, we recommend you stay in and celebrate the “high” holiday.
- Mon. 4/15 – Esben & the Witch @ DC9, Washington, D.C.
- Tues. 4/16 – Presidents of the United States of America @ 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
- Wed. 4/17 – Joey Badass & Pro Era w/ Flatbush Zombies @ Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore, Md.
- Wed. 4/17 – Ivan and Alyosha @ DC9, Washington, D.C.
- Thurs. 4/18 – Bleached @ DC9, Washington, D.C.
- Thurs. 4/18 – Metz @ Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington, D.C.
- Thurs. 4/18 – Rhye @ Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, Washington, D.C.
- Thurs. 4/18 – Rusko @ 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
- Fri. 4/19 – Alesso @ Echostage, Washington, D.C.
- Sun. 4/21- Broccoli City Festival @ D.C. Fairgrounds, Washington, D.C.
SXSW Re-Cap: The Night That Restored Our Faith in N.Y. Hip-Hop
Photo gallery after the jump.
The biggest takeaway from this year’s SXSW reaffirmed what we have been hoping for some time: New York hip-hop is not dead. Not even close.
Vice Media’s Viceland–one of SXSW’s larger official venues–was proof positive of that point. On Friday night, the venue hosted a who’s who of New York’s past and present: Flatbush Zombies, A$AP Ferg, Action Bronson, Juelz Santana and Ghostface Killah. The only non-New Yorker on the bill was Detroit’s Danny Brown, but he fit in well with the others.
Flatbush Zombies kicked things off and set the precedent for the rest of the evening. The Brooklynites ripped through their set and ended up spending some quality time rapping from the audience. Not to be outdone, A$AP Ferg and his crew took the stage and immediately launched into the audience to stir up the crowd.
To call Danny Brown’s set a downer would be unfair, but there was a noticeable difference in energy between Brown and the first two acts. With that said, Brown did his thing and kept the crowd with him throughout his set.
After Brown, Action Bronson took the stage and tore that motherfucker down. All the way down. Bronson is a force all by himself (we have been over this), but he brought a whole gang friends that took his show to a whole other level. Roc Marciano, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Domo Genesis, Schoolboy Q, RiFF RaFF and several others joined Bronson on stage throughout the set.
In what has become a staple at Bronson’s live shows, the Queens MC strolled all through the venue while performing, “Strictly 4 My Jeep.” After rocking a new Alchemist-produced track with the Odd Future boys, Bronson pulled out a plastic grocery bag full of dime bags and began tossing them into the crowd. Have you ever seen when they throw chum to great whites during Shark Week? Yeah, it looked like that.
Proving yet again that he is focused on being a part of hip-hop’s future, Bronson called Chance the Rapper and several other young-guns to the stage for a cypher that concluded the set.
Juelz Santana had the dubious task of following Action Bronson’s tour de force, which may explain why he took his sweet ass time before getting on stage. Despite a deflating wait between sets, Santana eventually showed up and took us back to high school with tracks like, “Hey Ma,” and “Oh Boy.” After peppering the crowd with some Dip-Set classics and his solo hits, Juelz closed out the set with a new track that gives us hope for his new album.
Finally, the evening’s headliner took the stage. Our only gripe is that Vice should’ve billed it as Wu-Block instead of Ghostface Killah. With Sheek Louch in tow, the New York super group covered material from both the Lox/D-Block and Wu-Tang Clan in addition to a few Ghostface solo tracks.
Despite growing up on Wu-Tang Clan and banging Dip-Set anthems through high-school, it was the new, younger acts that we were really stoked on.
DMVicious 